Convert XML to Ruby Online

Paste an XML table below, edit it if you need to, and get Ruby back. The conversion runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded, there is no size limit and there is no signup.

From

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Nothing here is uploaded. The parsing happens on this page.

Edit

Paste or upload something above and it will appear here.

ToDataMarkupDocumentsCodeSchemasImages

Header rowDetect numbers

The output will appear here once there is a table to convert.

What XML is

XML marks up data with nested named tags and optional attributes. It is verbose, strict about being well-formed, and can carry a schema that says what shape a document must have.

Enterprise integrations, government data feeds, RSS, SOAP services and older document formats.

What Ruby is

A Ruby array of hashes with symbol keys.

Rails seed files and Ruby scripts.

What changes when you convert XML to Ruby

The first repeating element is treated as the rows. Attributes are read alongside child elements and prefixed so they do not collide with a same-named tag. Nesting one level deep becomes dotted column names; deeper structures are kept as text.

Column names are converted to valid symbol names, which means non-word characters become underscores.

What carries over from XML to Ruby

Ruby can express everything XML holds about a table, so this conversion is about shape rather than loss.

Ruby wants a type for each column, and XML does not record one, so each column is typed from what its values look like. A column of digits that should stay text - a zip code, a phone number, a leading-zero id - is the usual thing to check afterwards.

The identifier 007 comes out of the Ruby as 007. Reading it as a number would have made it 7, and an id that changes value is worse than one that stays text.

The role "Analyst, data" survives with its comma, in one cell rather than split across two. That is the first thing to check in any converted table, and the usual place a Ruby file goes wrong.

The quotes around Jonah "Jo" Pryce are left as a plain quote character in the Ruby.

A worked example

Three rows of staff data, with an identifier that has a leading zero, a value containing a comma, a value containing quotes and one blank cell. Those are the four places formats disagree, so they are the four places to look.

XML in

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<staff>
  <person id="007">
    <name>Halima Yusuf</name>
    <role>Analyst, data</role>
    <started>2024-03-15</started>
    <hours>38.5</hours>
  </person>
  <person id="012">
    <name>Jonah "Jo" Pryce</name>
    <role>Engineer</role>
    <started>2025-11-02</started>
    <hours></hours>
  </person>
  <person id="104">
    <name>Wei Chen</name>
    <role>Manager</role>
    <started>2023-06-30</started>
    <hours>40</hours>
  </person>
</staff>

Ruby out

staff = [
  { id: '007', name: 'Halima Yusuf', role: 'Analyst, data', started: '2024-03-15', hours: '38.5' },
  { id: '012', name: 'Jonah "Jo" Pryce', role: 'Engineer', started: '2025-11-02', hours: '' },
  { id: '104', name: 'Wei Chen', role: 'Manager', started: '2023-06-30', hours: '40' },
]

Questions

How do I convert XML to Ruby?

Paste your XML into the box above or drop the file onto it. Check the table in the grid, then copy or download the Ruby from the output panel. It takes one step and the data never leaves your browser.

Is there a limit on file size?

No. The work happens on your own machine, so the limit is your machine's memory rather than an upload cap. A file with tens of thousands of rows converts in a second or two.

Is my data uploaded anywhere?

No. The parsing and generating are done by JavaScript running on this page. You can watch the network tab while you convert and see that nothing is sent.